Social Security Income Research Papers

Social Security Income Research Papers look at a sample of an order placed on a social policy or program in the United States.

Social Security Income Research Papers can be designed as you see the outline below. Paper Masters will custom write any research paper on SSI or the social security system that you need for a government or political science course.

This is a social policy analysis framework on Social Security Income (SSI).

You may want to follow these format instructions for Social Security Income Research Paper:

Social Policy/Program (i.e. SSI). State the formal name (and acronym, as well as additional terms used to describe it if relevant) of the social policy and its stated (official) purpose.

Policy Legislative History: starting at its inception, identify and briefly describe relevant legislative changes to the policy/program since it began.

Recipients: Describe the population targeted by this program.

Eligibility: Describe the eligibility criteria currently used to determine eligibility for this program.

Nature of Benefit: Identify the nature and level of the benefit.

Administration: Describe how the benefit is administered and disseminated.

Financing: Describe how the program is funded, how much it costs to operate each year, and how annual program costs are determined.

Effectiveness: How well does the program accomplish its purpose?

This might include the take-up rate, as well as reductions in poverty or additional terms (i.e., adequacy, equity).

Identify any studies, as well as any reports, policy briefs or additionals that examine the program's effectiveness. Make sure to comment about any contradictory findings and identify gaps in knowledge that make it difficult to determine how well the program works.

"Hot" Topic(s): Use this section to identify and briefly analyze any "hot" aspects of this program.
Make sure you discuss each sub heading accordingly.

Remember, this is about Social Security Income (SSI). write the difference between SSI and the social security income (i.e., tax income). You can choose any topic on social security you like and Paper Masters will custom write research that is up to date and relevant for your topic.

Social Security as a national institution evolved from a tradition of people helping people, and also from an economic crisis in the 1930’s in America. While public welfare was not new to America, it took on an image and function of charity. The government had already established retirement programs for public employees such as teachers and firemen, and veterans’ benefits were fully established by the end of WWI. Social Security as it was envisioned in the mid-1930s would “ensure that protection was available as a matter of right as contrasted with a public assistance approach whereby only those persons in need would be eligible for benefits”.

Social Security is actually an umbrella concept that describes other related programs as well; these include retirement, disability, dependents and survivors’ benefits. Social Security is a system that is designed to provide certain individuals with specific kinds of financial support. Working individuals pay into the Social Security system, with money that comes directly out of most paychecks prior to the workers getting them. These payments are taken from the workers’ gross incomes. Private contractors and entrepreneurs pay into the system on their own. Overall, the system should provide a safety net that provides some income in the retirement years, when money is less readily available. Some people think of it as a forced savings plan and others as an economic insurance plan.

Congress instituted the Social Security system at the behest of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. America had been suffering through the economic Depression of the 1930s in which millions of people had been displaced from their homes, from jobs and from their families. No country can endure such a bleak economic downturn without consequences, so Roosevelt enacted a plan that would stave off social upheaval.

Social Security evolved after its original enactment in 1935, partly because the amount of money set aside for retirees was not actually enough to keep them above the poverty line. So, in 1937, the Social Security Administration (SSA) shifted its role from that of a program designed only for retirees to an agency that provides financial support to minors, the aged, disabled and ill. In 1939, benefits were given to the worker’s spouse and minor children, if the primary income earner was deceased. Again in 1956, changes helped disabled workers to receive Social Security benefits. In 1965 Medicare dramatically changed SSA services by providing a health insurance program for not only retirees but also the disabled.

Unfortunately, no matter what ‘improvements’ were made on the system, it was never designed to provide wealth to retirees, but rather to do little more than keep the wolf from the door. Thus it was an incomplete answer to the problem of America’s senior citizens, minor children who had lost one or both parents and the disabled. Today, retirees struggle with astronomically high prescription drug costs, escalating gasoline prices, and decreasing value for each dollar they carefully spend. Social Security was never designed to give anyone the ‘high life’ experience yet it has never provided enough income for even a meager standard of living. Unfortunately for millions of people, Social Security is and will be their only monetary income in their last years.

Matthews and Berman report, “more than 30 million people receive Social Security retirement benefits, which average about $900 per month". Further they report that six million widows or widowers receive an average of $850 per month and five million disabled workers receive, on average, about $800 per month. Dependents benefits are even lower and average only $500 per month. A key requirement for receiving SSA benefits is ownership of a Social Security number (SSN). Whereas most people applied for SSNs at the time they first went to work, it is usually the case that new babies receive their SSN, a number that will follow them all their lives, and is the key identifier of each individual for the federal government.

Benefits that are paid to a retired or disabled worker, or to the worker’s dependent family are based on the worker’s average wages over the course of his working life. A schedule of payments is appropriated on the basis of the money that has been paid in, no matter what the actual financial needs of the worker or his/her family might be. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides for some of the poorest retirees, disables, and children.

Programs directly related to Social Security include the following: retirement benefits, disability benefits, dependents’ benefits and survivors’ benefits. Each program has stringent qualifiers and requirements in order for recipients to receive benefits. The primary requirement is that the worker must have worked for a specified number of years in what is called covered employment, or employment on which premiums were paid into the Social Security Administration during the working period. Workers accumulate credits over the years of covered employment. Each quarter (three months) of work earns the worker one credit towards fulfilling his requirement to receive later benefits. For example, Matthews and Berman write that between 1951 and 1978 a worker received one credit for each quarter in which he earned and reported $100 or more from self-employment.

America’s system of Social Security is deteriorating. In the next fifteen or twenty years, there won’t be enough young workers to support the great number of retirees and the Social Security Trust Fund may be in jeopardy of running dry by the year 2038. On the other hand, Rosen challenges that pessimistic outlook by reporting that SSA has collected over $6 trillion in retirement benefits since 1937 and reports that she sees no reason for worry.

In conclusion, Social Security’s original mission was to provide some guaranteed income for retirees. The historical traditions leading up to this economic need are tied to the transition of America from a primarily agrarian society up to the Civil War, to a highly industrialized society post war. Farmers, who knew how to survive on chunks of money coming in according to harvest times, did not have the need for regular income. However, industrialization required regular working days (and nights) with a small, but steady flow of income. It was no longer possible to live as the farmers did, as even farmers had flocked to the cities to work in America’s factories and industries.

The second most influential historical event to prompt the development of some kind of economic insurance program was the Great Depression of the 1930s, when millions were out of work and families began to break apart as men searched far and wide for work. To the American public, the Social Security Act might have seemed like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. It did not, however, have immediate effects on the economy. From its beginnings in 1935 to the present day, Social Security has grown to the point at which in 2001, $400 billion benefits were paid to more than 45 million Americans.

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